North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys · CLE · October 2026

Why prosecutors should learn AI.

(Assuming it doesn’t kill us all first.)

Everything from the talk, in six parts you can come back to. Start at the beginning, or jump to the part you need.

Start with Part 1 → See all six parts
Robert W. Cuffney · Legal Knowledge Engineer · Former Mecklenburg County ADA
Today, in six parts

Where we’re going.

This CLE is broad on purpose: what AI is, who is already using it against you, what it can do for a prosecutor, and the ways it goes wrong.

1The Other SideWhat’s already on the defense tableOpen part 1 → 2The LandscapeWho makes it, what it is, what’s beyond the modelOpen part 2 → 3What It Can DoConnectors, skills, projects. Prosecutor use cases.Open part 3 → 4What You Can Do NowWith the tools you actually haveOpen part 4 → 5What Can Go WrongHallucinations, slop, privacy, brain rotOpen part 5 → 6Your TurnQuestions, comments, ideasOpen part 6 →
During the talk, I pause for questions at every section break.
Before we start

Are you using AI today?

I open with three show-of-hands questions. Click each one to see what I expected the room to say.

My assumptionYou do not have access to enterprise AI. At most, some very limited Copilot. There is no official AI tool for prosecutors, and I built this CLE on that assumption.
Your Honor, I’d like to enter a plea

Guilty. Of not knowing exactly what I’m doing up here.

I’ve been a prosecutor, I’ve studied ethical AI in prosecution, and I work on legal AI every day. I still don’t have all the answers, because nobody does.

Mitigating factors

There are no experts.

AI changes drastically every few weeks. Anyone who tells you they have it figured out is describing last month.

Request for relief

Object loudly.

  • Tell me how your office actually handles discovery, charging, and trial prep.
  • Chime in with ideas and suggestions for ways to use AI.
  • Share what you’ve tried with AI, good or bad.
The court’s ruling

We figure this out together.

You know your offices, your dockets, and your judges far better than I do. If something here wouldn’t hold up in your courtroom, I want to hear it. Part 6 tells you how.

Who am I, to talk about AI?

Robert W. Cuffney

“I help attorneys use legal AI by building workflows that automate or enhance their work product.”

Legal engineerCleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

International law firm based in New York City. I build AI workflows that help attorneys automate or improve their work product.

8 years in the courtroom

Assistant District Attorney, Mecklenburg County. Mostly domestic violence, plus the habitual felon team.

How I got here
  1. Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office

    Eight years as an ADA.

  2. LexisNexis

    Worked on the large language models behind Lexis+ AI legal research.

  3. McGuireWoods

    AI Systems Analyst, about a year. Evaluated, piloted, and rolled out legal AI tools such as Harvey.

  4. Cleary Gottlieb

    Legal engineer. Building AI workflows for attorneys firm-wide.

  5. M.S. Information Systems, Northwestern University

    Thesis: Ethically Implementing Generative AI in Prosecution (2025). The prosecutor-analysis skill in Part 3 came out of that work.

Let’s stay in touch
rwcuffney@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/robertcuffney ↗